Reiterating party's commitment to the welfare of the weaker sectionsof society, the State Congress here on Thursday appealed to the Dalitsto support the Congress in the coming Assembly elections in the State.

The Dalit Sammelan that the party organised here on Thursday, turnedout to be a show of strength for the Congress which is a bit concernedabout the division of SC/ST votes, particularly in terai region of thehill state, ever since the emergence of BSP in the State politics.

The Congress party has always been with the weaker sections of thesociety. The party has always given full respect to the Dalits, saidChaudhary Birender Singh, party's in-charge of Uttarakhand affairs.Under the Congress regime Dalit leaders have occupied high posts andposition.

Today, we have with us Cabinet Ministers Kumari Shailja and KrishnaTirath. That is why we would like to say that Dalits need not to bemisguided by false promises of the rival parties. Under the BJPgovernment in the State, the Dalits have been marginalised. Even theCentrally sponsored schemes have not been implemented in the hillstate resulting in lapse of crores of rupees granted for theseschemes. That only reflects the insensitiveness of the BJP governmenttowards Dalits, alleged Singh.

During the last General Elections the Dalits played a significant roleresulting in an overwhelming victory for the Congress in all fiveparliamentary seats of the hill state. So we hope that Dalits wouldalways support the Congress, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Kumari Shailja also said thatthe Congress has always been with the weaker sections of society. "Thekind of support we have had here only shows that the Dalits are withthe Congress even today. So I appeal to all the Dalits to support theCongress in the coming State Assembly elections," she added. In herremarks, Cabinet minister Krishna Tirath said that huge presence ofDalits in this meet has only proved wrong those who say that Dalitshave been marginalised in the Congress regime at the Centre.

"We assure that the party is committee to the cause of the Dalits,"she added. State party president Yashpal Arya, accusing the BJPgovernment in the State of being anti-Dalit stated that there shouldbe a separate directorate to deal with centrally sponsored schemes andspecial component plans for the Dalits.

The matter of concern is that under this BJP regime crores of rupeesthat the Centre has granted have lapsed. So we reassure the communitythat Congress would always support its cause.

India's Human Development Index (HDI) showed an impressive gain of 21% between 1999-2000 and 2007-08 with the Muslims and the backwards catching up with others on socio-economic indicators even though the gap was still very big.

A Planning Commission report released a day before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is meeting of chief ministers to decide on plan approach for next five years (12th plan) says the Muslims and Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) were converging on health and education outcomes at a faster rate with the national average, especially during last six years.

The report also said that Gujarat, described as epitome for development by BJP, had highest incidence of malnutrition among Muslim, SC and ST women and was ranked 13 out of 17 states on hunger index, below much poorer Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam.

"Inspite of high economic growth Gujarat fares the worst in terms of overall hunger index among high per capita income states," said Santosh Mehrotra, Director-General of the plan panel's Institute of Applied Manpower Research.

The report findings had panel's deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia beaming who said it presents a "nice picture" and said inclusiveness was multi-dimensional and the report clearly shows how "growth has helped to reduce poverty".

Mehrotra agreed but his alarm was that the number of poor has come down by just 19 million since 1973-74 --- when poverty was measured for the first time in India --- to be around 302 million in 2004-05.

The report said poverty among SC and ST remain much higher than the national average, an area of concern for policy makers. On the brighter note, the report said these backward sections, considered lowest on ten socio-economic indicators such as monthly spending, infant and maternal mortality rate and fertility rate, were converging with the national average on six of these indicators.

"Fertility rate among Muslim women had witnessed maximum dip among different social groups and higher share of Muslim infants compared to national average lived beyond their first birth day," the report having special focus on Muslims among different religious groups said.

Over 55 % of Muslims, SC and STs live in poorest HDI score states --- Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal --- who have gained the most from "social inclusion through economic growth".

"The average growth of most of these states has been above the national GDP growth rate suggesting convergence over time in terms of economic growth," the report said. Maximum progress these states have made is enrollment of children in schools and increase in per capita income.

Child malnutrition, termed as a "puzzle" by Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh, was an exception to this social inclusion phenomenon with children in 17 of 35 Indian states having higher malnourishment rate than in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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